The Nellie Spot

That's right, I'm now a freaking Hurricane, baby!

Oh yeah...I just laid out, flipped it, and reversed it!

Since the Johnson Slogans went over so well, I've decided to pull out a new contest. The kind of contests where you don't win anything at all for winning.

Allison and I are expecting a baby girl around October 13th. Allison wants her to come out sooner, but I've told the baby to stay in there until AFTER the LOST season premier. Selfish? Yes. Do I care? No...I want to see LOST from my house, not in the hospital. I digress.

The problem we are having is a name...we have tons of boy names picked out, but very few girl names. So here's your chance to name our next baby! Odds are highly against us actually using the name the winner picks. But until we name her something else, you can just keep hoping that we'll actually name her that.

So, what good girl names do y'all have for us? And no, Delilah cannot be submitted.

I'm a man.

I'm a man with facial hair that has to be shaved.

I'm a man with facial hair that has to be shaved with a Gillette Razor.
And that's no Schick.

I'm a man that has used the Mach 3 since it's arrival on the market, and loved it. My face loved it. My facial hair hated it (because it worked very well). However, I've recently tried out the new Fusion razor. 4 blades on the main face, and 1 on the back to grab that difficult to reach under-nose area. The first few times, as usual, it hurt a bit to use it. My face wasn't accustomed to the blade. I had a little bit of razor burn, and for some strange reason, my face broke out a lot more (gotta love pimples!). But I'm a fair man, so I gave the Fusion a couple of weeks to see if my skin familiarized itself with the razor and become battle-hardend.

I'm here to tell you: my face goes mach 3. My face doesn't like fusion: the scientific kind, or the razor. So I have made the switch back to my mach 3, much to my face's delight. The smooth, wonderful feel of 3 blades was received so much better than the brutal 4 blades. Apparently, my face has a limit to the number of blades you can run across it.

How's THAT for a random post!

Wow, we had some great comments for the Johnson campaign! Though some weren't specifically for my imaginary run for city council, they were great taglines and mottos that Johnson should adopt! Here are the comments, without names (to protect the righteous).

John Nelson for a bigger, better Johnson

John Nelson says, "Stop Sucking, Johnson!"

Exit 69: The Best Johnson Ever!

Johnson, a natural city of woods.

No one likes a dirty Johnson. Keep YOUR Johnson clean and beautiful. Say no to litter. (my personal favorite!)

John Nelson: Seriously, John Nelson...

John Nelson: For Truthiness, Speed Traps, and The Johnson Way...

Nelson: Keeping Johnson Somewhat Normal Since A Couple Of Days Ago...

John Nelson: The Only City Council Member That Wear Chaps To Every Meeting...

Johnson: Where the trains aren't the only things that are long.

Johnson: We don't need no stinking stoplights!

Johnson: The only place in America where you can be mayor, chief of police, animal control, and code enforcement at the same time.

Johnson: Where sheet metal buildings never go out of style. (my 2nd favorite!)

Johnson: Small town America so small the cops don't have anywhere to hide.

John Nelson: Johnson needs a new member. (My 3rd favorite)

Make Johnny work for your Johnson.

J.T. Nelson: Hard on Johnson, good on you.

Many people don't know who Maynard Freguson was. However, most people have heard at least one song by him. Maynard was one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, and he died Wednesday night. The song you probably know? He's the trumpet player from Rocky's theme song.

As a trumpeter, I was required to listen to MF before joining the Jazz Band in Junior High and High School. I wasn't too big on jazz back then, but his masterful skills were something to stand in awe of. According to the MSNBC article, someone in his family, just after he died, said "Gabriel, move over to second trumpet". Now, that's geeky. Even as a trumpeter, I think that's geeky. However, if you've heard MF play, then you know he'll be giving Gabriel a run for his money.

News article from MSNBC:

Polar Bear Genitals Shrinking Due to Pollution

Ok, though I may not REALLY be running for Johnson City Council, it sure is fun to act like it and to daydream about it! I just think it would be really fun to be able to list "City Council Member" on my resume!

Elton (via the Casa Verde Lounge) thought we should come up with some campaign slogans, which is a great idea! Here are a couple slogans I came up with:

"John Nelson for a bigger, better Johnson!"

"John Nelson says, 'Stop sucking, Johnson!'"

"Exit 69: The Best Johnson Ever"


Yes, I am going to go straight to hell in a handbasket...but it's oh so fun! If you have some good slogans for my totally fake campaign for Johnson City Council, leave them in the comments! If I use your slogan, I'll give you a free campaign button!

My sweet friends gave me a Baby Shower today and it was so fun. "Baby Girl" (she still doesn't have a name) received a lot of great gifts! They were also sweet enough to think of Emma and got her a fun gift as well. I brought it home for her and let her open it after her nap. I probably should preface this with that fact that Emma has been loving to play dress up and imagine herself doing all kinds of things. We are realizing that she has quite an imagination for a 2 1/2 year old. Anyway, inside was a new ballerina outfit, ballet shoes and a magic wand. She has only taken it off briefly since she opened it up. The crown (which is already broken) was a gift from my Mom this week. Here are the promised pictures of Emma in her new favorite dress up outfit. You might be seeing her in this again come October 31st!!

Well, it turned out to be a pretty spectacular day here in California! The training got over around noon, so I had the whole afternoon and evening to do just about anything. I tried to get a flight home for tonight, but it would cost too much to change my flight at the last minute, so I opted to stay here (for good reason, too!).

I was talking to Allison after training, and told her I didn't know what to do the rest of the day. She told me to go to Universal Studios. So I did! I got there around 1:00 PM, and spent the next 7 hours waiting in line for decent rides. My favorite? Revenge of the Mummy. It's a good time. Other fun attractions are Shrek 4-D, Terminator 2: 3-D, and Waterworld. However, if you happen to be going to Universal Studios soon, take this advice: don't eat and then immediately go ride Back to the Future. You'll vomit. Thankfully, I didn't, but I sure did want to! I hit most of the attractions there and left about 8:00 PM.

I decided to hang out at Universal City Walk for a while, since I wasn't very tired and didn't feel like going back to the hotel. I grabbed some Starbucks and watched people walk around for a while. Then hung out at EB Games, which is next to the cinema. Spontaneously, I decided to go see a movie: World Trade Center. It was pretty great, though nothing like what I expected. I'd recommend seeing it.

Now I have to pack so I can get home and see my girls! It's amazing how much you can miss someone (or many someone's) in such a short time of being gone.

Well, I'm out in LA for a few days on business...new software training. Good times.

The only exciting thing I have planned is to go see the Dodgers play tonight against the Florida Marlins. Those who know me at ALL will scratch be scratching their head at this. I'm not a sports fan. Actually, I really don't like baseball all that much. But for some reason, I really enjoy going to a game every now and then. The atmosphere in the stadiums is just great. And it'll be a beautiful low-70s at the game, so it may very well be a perfect evening.

I get back Thursday evening, then head to Kansas City on Friday for a Promise Keeper's rally with my Dad.

I don't go out to each much for lunch. I live vicariously through the Lunch Tour. It's too expensive to eat out everday for lunch, and I'm a bit "stuck" in the office for reasons I will not talk about here (because I'll cuss a lot and end up quitting my job...). So, I have been refining the fine art of lunching at the office.

First of all, my WONDERFUL wife has been getting up with me in the mornings. While I get ready for work, she fixes my lunch and does her quiet time. So, I'm saving money and eating healthier by her serving me by fixing my lunch everyday. As you can see from the picture, my mother-in-law took things to the next level: a lunch box. The lunch box was plain silver, but she gave me 2 sheets of classic Superman stickers to adorn on my new lunch box! Yeah...she rocks.

The finishing touches on the fine art of in-office lunching is what you do while you're eating. For the longest time, I would waste time by surfing the internet. I have chosen a new hobby during lunch: movie watching! I have some kickin' speakers hooked up to my iPod dock at work, and I just switch over the input line to my laptop and watch an hour of a movie on my monitor! It's pretty darn great! In fact, on a few occasions, co-workers have joined me to watch movies in my cube during lunch. My boss isn't quite sure how to react...he now just asks what movie I'm watching and goes on his way.

So, if you're a person who is bound and gagged to their chairs straight through the day, maybe you can adopt my style of in-office lunching. It's pretty great.

On Thursday, I went for my first road bike ride with a coworker (Brian) and a coworker's husband (Doug). Brian gave me his old road bike and will be pushing me to go out frequently to get into shape. The bike is an older GT aluminum frame with shoe lock pedals. I rode the bike around the neigborhood a little to get a feel for the bike and the gear changing.

We met at Doug's house back behind Pinnacle golf course. Brian held the bike for me while I practiced unlocking my feet so I wouldn't fall when coming to stop. He also warned me that EVERYONE falls the first time. I was determined to disprove that. The results? They're coming.

Brian told me we'd ride between 10-15 miles. To me, that sounds like a really long way, but I was willing to try it out. I stopped a couple of times, mainly going up small but long hills. I stopped at the turn for about 2 minutes to rest, then started my way back toward the house. After a couple of miles of slow and steady climbing, I decided to stop for a break. Brian and Doug came back looking for me after a few minutes. When I felt like I could manage going on again, we started up the hill. And this is when I fell. The difficult part of the locking shoes for me isn't getting my feet OUT...it's getting my feet locked IN. Thankfully, the fall didn't hurt too bad. We continued on back to the house. At one point, Doug circled back to ride alongside me and chat. I asked him about how far this ride was going to be...he said 21 miles! When Brian said 10-15 miles, he meant 10-15 miles OUT, not round trip. Suprisingly, I wasn't as mad as I should have been. I actually felt relieved that I wasn't SOOO out of shape that I couldn't ride 10 miles! We finally made it back to Doug's house after an hour and a half and no broken bones or skinned legs.

It's crazy to think that my first time out was 21 miles. That's the same distance it is between my house and my office in Bentonville. That drive takes me 25 minutes going 70 (ish) on the highway! The next day, my legs didn't hurt at all, but I was a bit...um...saddle sore. I took every opportunity to stand up throughout the day and give my laurels a rest. :)

Josh Hale and I were talking a few days ago on the phone. He mentioned that his old school superintendent from Mena had been in Johnson for many years and was now going to run for mayor of Johnson. I think that's awesome.

Following that train of thought, it somehow came up that I should run for a position on Johnson's city council. Not sure which one of us mentioned it first. Of course, we were joking. Since that conversation, though, I can't stop thinking about how cool it would be to sit on the city council! My ex-neighbor is on the city council and she loves doing it. She also didn't have many qualifications for the position she holds. So, I'm seriously considering going up to city hall and inquiring about how to get on the ballad. I honestly have no clue what any of the positions actually do...but I'd love to have a position where I could voice opinion about the governance of my beloved little town!

The only 2 things I can currently think about as far as a platform would be:

• Traffic: helping the Streets Dept actually think through their decisions. A great example would be the lack of a left turn signal at Main St and Carley that backs traffic up for miles after work.
• Johnson's image: set limits of business building types that can be built in the city limits. For instance, at the rate we're going, Johnson will be 90% strip mall in the next 3 years. And that has to stop. It's shameful. Before long, when all the businesses go under, we'll be a town where you'll only see colored rock shops and broken down antique shops that sell crap.

Any other thoughts on how Johnson could change for the better?? ANd thanks in advance for your votes. You'll get a free "Nellie for City Council" button.

I've found that the older I get, the harder it is to recover from breaking my normal routine. A couple of weeks ago, I had the concert itch and got off my sleep schedule. It took me a couple of days to bounce back.

Yesterday, Miller and I played tennis at 6:00 AM. I usually wake up between 6:45 and 7:00 AM. I actually did pretty well throughout the day...even played tennis again at 8:30 PM. Today? I'm fried.

Man, if I'm only 29, what's life going to be like in 5 years? 10? I'm pathetic.

A coworker of mine (Lisa) recently saw Fantasia Barrino at LAX airport. Fantasia was the winner of American Idol, Season 3. Lisa shares my ridiculous giddyness of all thins American Idol, so she called from the airport and told me she saw her. I didn't get excited...and there was major fallout! She did go over and say hi and ended up talking to her for about 30 minutes, which is pretty cool.

I was never a big Fantasia fan. Actually, I wasn't even a big fan of the entire season 3, for that matter. That's why I didn't get excited. Now had she seen Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Clay Aiken, or Kelly Clarkson...my reaction would have been different. She's still giving me a hard time about not getting excited. Apparently, I failed in my American Idol Cheerleader role. The picture is of Lisa (left) and her friend with Fantasia.